It is generally accepted that conventional safety belts and harnesses designed for adult passenger usage in automobiles are not sufficient to protect a child in the case of an accident or collision. Child safety seats are widely used in order to adequately restrain children and prevent serious injury or death resulting from a collision. Almost all states now require child restraints for children until they are at least four years of age, and some states require child restraints for children up to eight years of age. Conventional child safety seats usually consist of a small plastic shell-type seat having a padded cover and are fitted with a 5 point restraint belt system composed of a pair of shoulder belts, a waist belt and a crotch belt. Because children vary considerably in size as they grow from infancy, the belts are typically adjustable.
Many of the conventional belt systems used in conjunction with child safety seats are relatively complicated and difficult to use. Inexperienced users frequently find securing a child into the safety seat to be a challenging task. In many of the prior art devices the buckle used for fastening the multitude of belts around the child is located in such a position that it is difficult to fasten and unfasten. Some existing devices have been designed in an attempt to alleviate these problems in conventional child safety seat designs. Most prior art devices have been designed to provide reliable protection to the child during a collision or automobile accident. The child safety seats described and shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,044,549; 7,029,069; 6,971,718; 6,827,399; 6,799,799; 6,679,550; 6,623,075; 6,520,579; 6,471,298; 6,382,722; 5,733,003; 4,342,483; and 3,938,859 are representative of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,965 is typical of the prior art devices available. More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,965 discloses a child safety seat in combination with an adult vehicle seat for a motor vehicle with a seat portion and a backrest portion. This child safety seat comprises: a support structure, a seat body having first and second abutment surfaces which are alternatively engageable with the support structure to support the seat body at respective first and second angles to the support structure, first releasable coupling means arranged to provide a rigid connection between the support structure and the motor vehicle, upwardly facing abutment means on the support structure positioned above the seat portion of the adult vehicle seat and in front of the backrest portion thereof, second coupling means arranged to hold the first abutment surface in rigid abutment with the support structure only when the seat body is facing rearward in the vehicle and to hold the second abutment surface in rigid abutment with the support structure only when the seat body is facing forwardly in the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,774 is also typical of the prior art devices. It discloses a child safety seat comprising: a seat body having a seat back, a harness for a child occupant of the seat secured to the seat body and including a pair of shoulder straps extending through respective slots in the seat back and a respective lap strap connected to each shoulder strap, a respective shoulder pad slidably mounted on each shoulder strap, each shoulder pad having an upper loop attached to its upper end and a lower loop attached to its lower end, the corresponding shoulder strap being threaded through said upper and lower loops, a buckle interconnecting the lap straps at their junctions with the shoulder straps, a separable link assembly having a first link part slidably mounted on one shoulder strap between its upper and lower loops and a second link part slidably mounted on the other shoulder strap between its upper and lower loops, the first and second link parts having interlocking formations adapted to engage with one another, and a respective fixed-length tether connected to the upper end of each shoulder pad and extending through its respective slot to an anchorage behind the seat back.
These prior art devices, along with the other available devices, are deficient in that little consideration has been given to the safety of a child restrained in the child safety seat after an automobile accident. Conventional designs focus on the safety of a child during an accident, and may be adequate in protecting a child from serious injury or death in that respect. However, a child may remain in danger after the forces of a collision have ceased acting on the vehicle and the passengers inside the vehicle. There is often a risk of explosion due to gasoline fumes after an automobile accident, as well as the risk of fire. Also, there is a risk that a child may be injured from the accident and need immediate emergency medical care. Because of these post-collision risks and dangers, it is imperative that a child can be easily removed from the child safety seat restraints in a rapid manner. In cases where the vehicle is actually on fire the need to remove the child from the safety seat without delay is absolutely critical. The pressures and anxieties associated with an accident will only make it more likely that a parent or rescuer will struggle when attempting to release the child's restraints. Parents attempting to free a child may themselves be injured from the accident and therefore be operating in a diminished capacity. Rescue personnel may have significant difficulty in removing the child from the child safety seat because they do not have experience with the device. These risks are significantly higher when there are several children secured into child safety seats in a vehicle that has been involved in an accident. Because the safety seat harnesses may differ in design, and due to the increased lack of space inside the vehicle, there is a greater chance that a parent or rescuer will encounter difficulties with the harness release mechanisms. Also, there exists a risk that the latches of the child safety seat restraints will become damaged or stuck during the accident, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to safely remove the child from the accident scene. There is a long-felt and yet unanswered need for an improved child safety seat that allows for quick and easy removal of a child in an emergency situation.